For those of you looking to join a CSA this year, sorry, we’ve closed up shop and moved from our lovely little homestead in Dundee to start a farm project at the Mineral Springs Ranch at Soter Vineyards in Carlton, OR.

For the time being, we aren’t offering CSA shares, but there are some great farmers in our community that you might want to check out this season:

**** Walnut City Homestead Farms in McMinnville, OR
**** Wintergreen Farm in Noti, OR (delivers to Portland)
**** Working Hands Farm in Hillsboro (who we don’t know personally, but have been admiring from afar).

Thanks for visiting this page! We’ll keep it up for all of the great recipe contributions our members and friends have made over the years. And because we like looking at the pictures.

Do come visit us at Soter Vineyards (sotervineyards.com). We’ll be partnering with some talented local chefs to produce some wonderful from-the-farm creations for sale at the Tasting Room this summer!

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 6,200 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 10 years to get that many views.

]]>https://dundeedirtbox.wordpress.com/2012/12/30/6200-views-this-year-thanks-everyone/feed/0lewWinter at the Dirtboxhttps://dundeedirtbox.wordpress.com/2012/12/21/winter-at-the-dirtbox/
https://dundeedirtbox.wordpress.com/2012/12/21/winter-at-the-dirtbox/#respondFri, 21 Dec 2012 14:30:13 +0000http://dundeedirtbox.wordpress.com/?p=2392]]>Thank you, everyone, for all of the words of support and encouragement while Jon and I went on the longest walk down the aisle in the history of weddings! Our walk across Spain was inspiring… both for Jon’s woodworking business (he took 2000+ photos of elaborate Spanish doors and windows), and for my gardening vision. It also served as a great reminder that there truly is no place like home. In any case, now we are officially, “the Basiles”, and I SWEAR I didn’t marry him just for his last name, although I can’t think of a better name for a CSA farming family ;).

Anyway, we tend to baby our animals a bit. The joke around here is that our home is old, drafty, and COLD… but our chickens are warm and toasty under heat lamps in the barn. When I want to warm up, I go out to collect the eggs. They are comfy, and still laying for us, so eggs are still available if you want them for your holiday baking. Check the egg fridge in the barn, or shoot me a text or email…

It’s great to be back! Especially as we pass the winter solstice mark, and there is a promise of more daylight to come…

Happy solstice, happy holidays, happy wintertime!

Much love,

the Basiles

]]>https://dundeedirtbox.wordpress.com/2012/12/21/winter-at-the-dirtbox/feed/0lewWinter is coming.https://dundeedirtbox.wordpress.com/2012/10/03/winter-is-coming/
https://dundeedirtbox.wordpress.com/2012/10/03/winter-is-coming/#commentsWed, 03 Oct 2012 16:40:38 +0000http://dundeedirtbox.wordpress.com/?p=2766]]>This isn’t a reference to the “Game of Thrones”, so if you clicked on this link by accident, keep on reading about our chickens. I assure you, it’s just as riveting.

I love this Indian summer we’re having, warm sunny days, cool nights… it hardly feels like winter is coming. But since it’s getting dark out around 7 instead of 10, and on some afternoons I find myself racing the light when I’m out there harvesting… and also feeling the end-of-season tiredness that sets in when my thoughts turn to, “is it really worth picking these last few tomatoes? They’re probably sick of peppers and eggplants by now, even though the plants will keep producing more until the first freeze”.

The pole beans have yellow leaves, the tomato leaves are thinning and have changed from a dark vibrant green to a tired limey color, and the squash and cucumber plants are mildewed and have all but given up. But most of all, I know that winter is coming because the chickens have all said, “NO MORE”.

Over the past week, I’ve only collected a handful of eggs compared to the 2 dozen-a-day production that has been normal all summer. Chickens don’t care if it’s still warm outside… their bodies respond to day length. Much like ours do, I learned, during my first couple of years in the Pacific Northwest. It’s not the rain and clouds that mess with our head chemistry and makes us tired, depressed and caffeine-addicted in the wintertime… it’s the lack of daylight. Something I also experienced when I lived in Alaska, but I had forgotten all about. I wasn’t farming back then. I wasn’t paying attention.

My first couple of years with chickens, I treated them much like I did myself…. with timed coop lighting and lots and lots of supplements. They laid eggs all winter long, and with no CSA to provide an outlet for our eggs, we were inundated all winter.

I used to think that so long as I can trick my brain into thinking it’s summer, I’d be happy and productive. But now I’ve come to realize that sleeping until the sun rises is better in so many ways, and it’s OK to not be as productive in the wintertime. It’s OK to rest, knit, watch movies, read books, make plans, drink tea, be quiet and calm. When spring rolls around again, I’ve got fresh energy to start another season.

I started to stress about having to be ‘ON’ all the time in the winter when my mind was in rest mode, and started thinking about the chickens in the same way. Every day in the summertime they produce this amazing thing, like clockwork, that is so full of protein and minerals. Every single day. That’s a lot of work for a chicken. They deserve a rest. We all do.

So no more supplemental lighting for our birds, and no more ‘happy light’ for me. We’ll all live longer that way! But sorry to say, there won’t be much in the way of eggs anymore for the season. You can still check the fridges, because the ducks seem to be on a different schedule (they’re young and don’t know better), I’ll keep stocking them with whatever eggs we get…

Meanwhile, some of our ladies are retiring… we have about 10 of them we’d love to re-home. They’re done producing eggs for the season, but will pick up again in the spring (maybe not an egg every day, but they’ll lay a few a week for years to come). If anyone is interested, they’re beautiful, fat and fluffy and want nothing more than to clear your winter yard of bugs and weed seeds. Contact me if you’re interested.

]]>https://dundeedirtbox.wordpress.com/2012/10/03/winter-is-coming/feed/2lewSeptember updateshttps://dundeedirtbox.wordpress.com/2012/09/14/september-updates/
https://dundeedirtbox.wordpress.com/2012/09/14/september-updates/#commentsFri, 14 Sep 2012 17:43:40 +0000http://dundeedirtbox.wordpress.com/?p=2761]]>I keep thinking the season is coming to a close, but the long-term forecast says otherwise. Sunny days in the 80’s and nights in the 50’s stretch as far as they dare project, well into October. Last year, I often thought to myself, “thank goodness I’m not farming wine grapes this year”. But this year I’m almost wistful for what looks to be a perfect grape growing season.

Anyway, this morning I woke up thinking… 6 more weeks of CSA deliveries, and there’s still time to PLANT stuff!! We still have lots of fall crops in the ground, and surprisingly, the summer veggies are still hanging on and cranking out summer squashes, peppers, tomatoes, melons, eggplants. Soon we’ll start harvesting more of the beets, onions, leeks, leafy greens, winter squashes, cabbages… and hopefully the broccoli and cauliflower will do something interesting this month. If not, you may get a call from me in December to come and get some winter ‘extras’.

But meanwhile, the big news of the month is… Jon finally decided to get down on one knee and commit to putting up with me, my hordes of animals and a house full of drying seeds, herbs, pumpkins, random canning projects and whatever other projects I get us into… for the rest of his life, the poor guy. Our plan is to run off to Spain at the end of October to catch the last of the Camino de Santiago hiking season and get married along the way. SO, we MAY double up on your second-to-last boxes (the week of October 14) so that we have time to put the gardens to bed before we leave. These boxes will be full of winter storage crops, so should last for a long while.

The Breadboard breads and the Fairview Farms goat cheeses all freeze really well, too. If you want a few extra loaves/cheeses for the winter, let me know and we’ll get them to you in your last boxes. Also, if this winter is anything like last winter, we’ll have eggs in our egg fridge for you all winter long. Just because the CSA is over, doesn’t mean our egg supply goes away. The chickens slow down some, but they still do what they do despite the weather.

Stay tuned for emails in your inboxes regarding specifics in the next few weeks!

These beauties are called “BINGO” beans, and I harvested them just short of ‘dry’ so that you can experience this one-time-per-season phenomenon of fresh beans. These need to be popped out of their shells (get the kids on this job) before cooking. They don’t need to be soaked the way you would to rehydrate a dried bean, and their cooking time is way shorter 10-15 minutes, or until tender. You can use them in your favorite recipes the way you would a dried bean… but since they coincide so well with corn and tomato season, there are lots of recipes on line for succotash or quick shelling bean sautes with summer veggies and herbs. Chef Cheryl is leaving us for her restaurant internship in NY for the rest of the summer… but she’s left us with these words of bean wisdom:

Turns out, I have no idea what to do with shelling beans. I mean, the standard succotash or bean/corn salad is a reliable fall-back, but I was eager to find something new for the shelling beans. I spent hours, days, asking everyone I know,I looked through cook books, cooking blogs, and the internet at large, and I am sad to say that I found NO unusual or super creative recipes for shelling beans. David Lebowitz has an awesome shelling bean salad recipe, (found here: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2009/09/how-to-prepare-shelling-beans/) and the bean stew recipes abound, but I am still on the hunt for something outside of the pod for these beans. This pasta recipe was adapted from the Gourmet magazine haricot vert pasta recipe, and you can add any other vegetables you choose. Just keep in mind cooking times for different vegetables and add them to the sauce according to those times. (e.g. tough and hard vegetables should be added before softer, thinner vegetables.)

The sauce is really delicious on its own and can be used to top quinoa, rice, or any other grain of your choice.

Anyone have other great ideas for shelling beans?? Share them with me!

Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and sauté until tender, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and crushed red pepper; continue to saute and stir another minute or so. Stir in tomatoes with juices and 1/4 cup water. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium; boil gently until sauce thickens, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Stir in beans and basil. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, cook orecchiette pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until almost tender, about 15 minutes. Add broccoli florets; cook until pasta is just tender but still firm to bite and broccoli florets are crisp-tender, about 2 minutes longer. Ladle out 1/2 cup pasta cooking water and reserve. Drain orecchiette and broccoli florets; return to pot.

Add tomato sauce and reserved pasta cooking water to pasta and toss to blend. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer pasta to bowl. Sprinkle with cheese and serve.

****** I’ll add to this that Jon and my favorite way to eat these little gems is to saute them with a bit of garlic, then braised down with some chicken stock, add sliced up kale leaves until they’re cooked and top with some grated parmesan and crumbled, crispy bacon… and eat it like the Brits do. On toast. Delicious Bread Board Sourdough toast. -nadine

I have been wanting to do a green chile apple pie like this for SO long, so I was delighted to have the opportunity. This might sound like a strange combination of flavors to some, but trust me, apples and chiles were made to be together! Roasting the chiles releases a smokey – sweet flavor into the pie that is balanced perfectly by the tangy apples. Adjust these spices however you’d like, but remember that you want them to complement the flavor of the pie, not overpower it. Some spices are much more potent than others, so play around a little with combinations to find your favorite one. The cheddar cheese was thrown in as a whim, but ended up really pulling it together. As always, you can leave this out or add more, if you’d like.

Roast chiles. Combine apples and chiles in a large bowl. Add lemon juice, sugars, salt, cornstarch and spices. Gently toss to combine. Place crust in buttered pie plate. Spread grated cheese over bottom of crust. Fill with apple mixture. Pour any juice remaining in bowl over apples and drop squares of butter over it. In a medium bowl, combine streusel ingredients and blend with a pastry cutter or use your fingers. Sprinkle over apples. Set pie on preheated baking sheet. Bake 15 minutes at 425 degrees, then lower heat to 375. Bake 30-45 minutes more, until apples are fork tender (can be pierced with a fork/skewer with little resistance.) Cover pie with foil if topping gets too brown. Let cool at least 4 hours before cutting.

]]>https://dundeedirtbox.wordpress.com/2012/08/22/chile-and-green-apple-pie-from-chef-cheryl/feed/0apple green chili pie1lewSicilian Eggplant Spread with Crostinihttps://dundeedirtbox.wordpress.com/2012/08/04/sicilian-eggplant-spread-with-crostini-17/
https://dundeedirtbox.wordpress.com/2012/08/04/sicilian-eggplant-spread-with-crostini-17/#commentsSat, 04 Aug 2012 02:11:51 +0000http://dundeedirtbox.wordpress.com/2012/08/04/sicilian-eggplant-spread-with-crostini-17/]]>This recipe is adapted from Ivy Manning’s Farm to Table cookbook, one I particularly like because she bases her recipes on NW produce and producers. I thought it was time to start suggesting eggplant recipes because they’re coming on little by little… you may have already seen a handful of Millionaire eggplants, or a Black King or a beautiful Nubia in your CSA boxes. One of our members confided to me that he gives his eggplant to a co-worker before bringing his veggies home to his wife, who loves eggplant. He just can’t stomach it, he said. Horrifying, I know. (Are you reading this anonymous CSA member? Horrifying.).

Well, for all of you eggplant haters, here’s a recipe to try before passing your eggplants along. Ivy swears that home grown eggplants are not bitter like the mass-produced specimens at the grocery store, and this recipe brings out the creamy, complex flavor of a well-grown eggplant! And it has chocolate in it. So it can’t be bad.

Sicilian Eggplant Spread with Crostini

1/2 cup olive oil + 1 tbsp.

1 c. chopped onion

3 tbsp pine nuts

3 tbsp dried currants or raisins

1/2 tsp dried oregano (why dry? use fresh).

3 large garlic cloves, sliced

1 lb eggplant, cut into 1/2″ cubes

1 tsp sugar (skip it, I think. There’s plenty of sugar in the raisins or currants).

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1 c tomato sauce

3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

s/p

1 loaf of awesome Bread Board bread, sliced 1/4″ thick.

Preheat oven to 350 (for toasting the bread).

Heat 1/2 c of oil in a large saute pan and add the onion, pine nuts, currants and oregano. Cook down until onions are translucent.

Add tomato sauce and vinegar, cover, and simmer until eggplant is tender (about 30 min). Season with s/p and let sit for an hour for the flavors to come together.

Meanwhile, brush the bread slices with oil and season with s/p. Bake in a single layer for about 15 min, until they’re brown around the edges.

I might also add that eggplant doesn’t need much to be delicious. Wendy Bennet at the Wine Country Cooking Studio says to just poke them with a fork and bake them whole at 425 degrees until they’re soft in the inside. That’s it. Just add a little salt and pepper and enjoy! If you haven’t already taken one of her classes, you should. I like to think that Jon and I are pretty good cooks, but we learned a LOT from her this week!

Anyway, give eggplants a chance. 60 million Italians can’t be wrong.

]]>https://dundeedirtbox.wordpress.com/2012/08/04/sicilian-eggplant-spread-with-crostini-17/feed/1lewButterflied monkfish with sweet runner bean stewhttps://dundeedirtbox.wordpress.com/2012/08/04/butterflied-monkfish-with-sweet-runner-bean-stew-3-2/
https://dundeedirtbox.wordpress.com/2012/08/04/butterflied-monkfish-with-sweet-runner-bean-stew-3-2/#respondSat, 04 Aug 2012 01:01:31 +0000http://dundeedirtbox.wordpress.com/2012/08/04/butterflied-monkfish-with-sweet-runner-bean-stew-3/]]>In case you don’t know, I have a schoolgirl crush on Jamie Oliver. Not just because he’s a maverick (the good kind), but because he gardens and cooks and publishes the most gorgeous rustic cookbooks I’ve ever seen. I wish, I wish I had taken a photo of our rendition of Jamie’s runner bean stew last night. But I didn’t, and we didn’t use monkfish, we used Dover sole. And we didn’t use runner beans, we used those beautiful Goldmarie pole beans that are starting to overload the trellises at the ROCO site. And thanks to a little inside information (ie: blast email from Blane), I know that NW Seafood in Newberg is getting in some fresh ling cod tomorrow which would be amazing on this stew.

Anyway, here goes, you’ll have to trust me… this is delicious and light and spicy and tangy perfect. Jamie, sorry for the shameless plagiarism, but we revere you around here. (sigh, if only he’d read our humble little blog).

Heat a large saucepan that can fit all of the ingredients in it and add 2 tbsp olive oil plus the oil from the jar of anchovies.

Chop 4 of the garlic cloves and add to oil with the anchovies and chili flakes until it all goes soft and falls apart.

Pour in the tomatoes, beans and rosemary sprigs.

Season with S/P and bring to a boil… then put a lid on it and simmer for 15 minutes. Season again if it needs it.

For the fish, if you’re using a thicker fish like monkfish or ling cod, lay the fish on a chopping board and slice them horizontally almost in half, so they open up like a book. Score the fish and put to the side. (If you’re using flounder or sole, no need to do this… it’s thin enough to cook through really fast).

To make the gremolata, chop the rest of the garlic with a pinch of salt. Then finely chop the parsley and finely grate the lemon zest. Mix these with the garlic, chop it all up together and use it to sprinkle on top of the whole dish at the end.

Heat a big pan, season the fish with s/p and rub with oil. Cook for 2 minutes on each side (don’t overcook it) until it’s cooked through.

Take beans off of the heat, remove rosemary springs and squeeze in the juice of the lemon you grated earlier. Place a pile of beans on each plate and top with fish. Then sprinkle on the gremolata and some chopped basil leaves. (don’t skip this step… it brings so much flavor to the whole thing!).

So super easy and delicious! Jaime says to pile it high on one big serving plate and go family style… if you make it, send us a picture!